White Buddleia and the Insects it Attracts

Pollen galore: my favourite White Buddleia photo

We inherited a white variety of Buddleia when we moved in to our current home back in 2012, and each year I complain that I wish it was a Black Knight or one of the purple species like B. Davidii that are particularly attractive to butterflies. But for a few short days before the flowers turn to a rusty brown, it looks beautiful. Followers of this blog will know that during the strict lockdown I kept a close eye on some of the plants, including self-seeded ones, in the garden, charting the insects that landed on them. I decided to 'watch' the Buddleia this year, and the photos in this post represent some of my sightings, including the total number of butterfly species seen on the bush. I need to spend more time watching and photographing the bees. And I note we should be dead-heading to allow new inflorescences to form.

 The Comma was the first butterfly to land on the white flowers this year.

I also noticed a couple of Large Whites...

...and quite good numbers of Red Admirals.

We have not seen a Peacock for a few days, but there were one or two about last week. A couple of years years ago I bought a beautiful Peacock butterfly card while we were on holiday in Galloway. When I unwrapped it, it seemed that the writing inside was the wrong way up.

What I have since discovered is that Peacocks often prefer to take an upside-down pose, like the one in my photo below: the image and the writing on the card matched each other after all!